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I have an Uno with CC3000 wifi shield and am trying to use the sntp.h library to get NTP time. I have been experimenting with a modified version of the ntpTest code from the library which fetches the time every minute. In the serial monitor I get the correct time MOST of the time. However at random intervals, the time will display 3 hours and 14 minutes ahead of the current MST time.

the SNTP client constructor looks like this:

sntp mysntp = sntp(NULL,"time.nist.gov", (short)(-7 * 60),(short)(-7 * 60), true);

The time will display correctly for two to ten minutes and then display one of the erroneous times once then revert to correct time.

EDIT Here is the pared down code from the Adafruit CC3000 WIFI shield ntpTest example. Note that the only reason I was getting the time so often was just teaching myself how it worked and I noticed this odd behavior. My intent was not to make an application that would, in the end, access NTP servers more than once per day.

    /*************************************************** 
  This is an example for the Adafruit CC3000 Wifi Breakout & Shield

  Designed specifically to work with the Adafruit WiFi products:
  ----> https://www.adafruit.com/products/1469

  Adafruit invests time and resources providing this open source code, 
  please support Adafruit and open-source hardware by purchasing 
  products from Adafruit!

  Written by Kevin Townsend & Limor Fried & Rick Lesniak for Adafruit Industries.  
  BSD license, all text above must be included in any redistribution
 ****************************************************/

/*

This example does a test of the SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) client:
* Initialization
* SSID Scan
* AP connection
* DHCP printout
* SNTP time synchronization
* Extract and print current time and date information

*/

#include <Adafruit_CC3000.h>
#include <ccspi.h>
#include <SPI.h>
//#include "utility/NetTime.h"
#include <string.h>
#include "utility/debug.h"
#include "sntp.h"

// These are the interrupt and control pins
#define ADAFRUIT_CC3000_IRQ   3  // MUST be an interrupt pin!
// These can be any two pins
#define ADAFRUIT_CC3000_VBAT  5
#define ADAFRUIT_CC3000_CS    10
// Use hardware SPI for the remaining pins
// On an UNO, SCK = 13, MISO = 12, and MOSI = 11
Adafruit_CC3000 cc3000 = Adafruit_CC3000(ADAFRUIT_CC3000_CS, ADAFRUIT_CC3000_IRQ, ADAFRUIT_CC3000_VBAT,
                                         SPI_CLOCK_DIVIDER); // you can change this clock speed but DI



#define WLAN_SSID       "CompsciWifi"   // cannot be longer than 32 characters!
#define WLAN_PASS       "005276DA"
// Security can be WLAN_SEC_UNSEC, WLAN_SEC_WEP, WLAN_SEC_WPA or WLAN_SEC_WPA2
#define WLAN_SECURITY   WLAN_SEC_WPA2

//Arguments to SNTP client constructor:
//  1 - Primary Network Time Server URL (can be NULL)
//  2 - Secondary Network Time Server URL (also can be NULL)
//  3 - Local UTC offset in minutes (US Eastern Time is UTC - 5:00
//  4 - Local UTC offset in minutes for Daylight Savings Time (US Eastern DST is UTC - 4:00
//  5 - Enable Daylight Savings Time adjustment (not implemented yet)
//
//sntp mysntp = sntp(NULL, "time.nist.gov", (short)(-7 * 60), (short)(-7 * 60), true);
sntp mysntp = sntp(NULL, "time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov", (short)(-7 * 60), (short)(-7 * 60), true);

// Type SNTP_Timestamp is 64-bit NTP time. High-order 32-bits is seconds since 1/1/1900
//   Low order 32-bits is fractional seconds
SNTP_Timestamp_t now;

// Type NetTime_t contains NTP time broken out to human-oriented values:
//  uint16_t millis; ///< Milliseconds after the second (0..999)
//  uint8_t  sec;    ///< Seconds after the minute (0..59)
//  uint8_t  min;    ///< Minutes after the hour (0..59)
//  uint8_t  hour;   ///< Hours since midnight (0..23)
//  uint8_t  mday;   ///< Day of the month (1..31)
//  uint8_t  mon;    ///< Months since January (0..11)
//  uint16_t year;   ///< Year.
//  uint8_t  wday;   ///< Days since Sunday (0..6)
//  uint8_t  yday;   ///< Days since January 1 (0..365)
//  bool     isdst;  ///< Daylight savings time flag, currently not supported   
NetTime_t timeExtract;

#define pF(string_pointer) (reinterpret_cast<const __FlashStringHelper *>(pgm_read_word(string_pointer)))

const prog_char   janStr[] PROGMEM = "January";
const prog_char   febStr[] PROGMEM = "February";
const prog_char   marStr[] PROGMEM = "March";
const prog_char   aprStr[] PROGMEM = "April";
const prog_char   mayStr[] PROGMEM = "May";
const prog_char   junStr[] PROGMEM = "June";
const prog_char   julStr[] PROGMEM = "July";
const prog_char   augStr[] PROGMEM = "August";
const prog_char   sepStr[] PROGMEM = "September";
const prog_char   octStr[] PROGMEM = "October";
const prog_char   novStr[] PROGMEM = "November";
const prog_char   decStr[] PROGMEM = "December"; 

PROGMEM const char* const monthStrs[] = { janStr, febStr, marStr, aprStr, mayStr, junStr,
                                          julStr, augStr, sepStr, octStr, novStr, decStr}; 

const prog_char   sunStr[] PROGMEM = "Sunday";
const prog_char   monStr[] PROGMEM = "Monday";
const prog_char   tueStr[] PROGMEM = "Tuesday";
const prog_char   wedStr[] PROGMEM = "Wednesday";
const prog_char   thuStr[] PROGMEM = "Thursday";
const prog_char   friStr[] PROGMEM = "Friday";
const prog_char   satStr[] PROGMEM = "Saturday"; 

PROGMEM const char* const dayStrs[] = { sunStr, monStr, tueStr,  wedStr,
                                        thuStr, friStr, satStr};


/**************************************************************************/
/*!
    @brief  Sets up the HW and the CC3000 module (called automatically
            on startup)
*/
/**************************************************************************/
void setup(void)
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.println(F("Hello, CC3000!\n")); 

  //Serial.print("Free RAM: "); Serial.println(getFreeRam(), DEC);


  /* Initialise the module */
  Serial.println(F("\nInitialising the CC3000 ..."));
  if (!cc3000.begin())
  {
    Serial.println(F("Unable to initialise the CC3000! Check your wiring?"));
    while(1);
  }

  /* Optional: Update the Mac Address to a known value */
/*
  uint8_t macAddress[6] = { 0x08, 0x00, 0x28, 0x01, 0x79, 0xB7 };
   if (!cc3000.setMacAddress(macAddress))
   {
     Serial.println(F("Failed trying to update the MAC address"));
     while(1);
   }
*/


  /* Delete any old connection data on the module */
  Serial.println(F("\nDeleting old connection profiles"));
  if (!cc3000.deleteProfiles()) {
    Serial.println(F("Failed!"));
    while(1);
  }

  /* Attempt to connect to an access point */
  char *ssid = WLAN_SSID;             /* Max 32 chars */
  Serial.print(F("\nAttempting to connect to ")); Serial.println(ssid);

  /* NOTE: Secure connections are not available in 'Tiny' mode! */
  if (!cc3000.connectToAP(WLAN_SSID, WLAN_PASS, WLAN_SECURITY)) {
    Serial.println(F("Failed!"));
    while(1);
  }

  Serial.println(F("Connected!"));

  /* Wait for DHCP to complete */
  Serial.println(F("Request DHCP"));
  while (!cc3000.checkDHCP())
  {
    delay(100); // ToDo: Insert a DHCP timeout!
  }  

  /*Serial.println(F("UpdateNTPTime"));
  if (mysntp.UpdateNTPTime())
  {
    Serial.println(F("Current local time is:"));
    mysntp.ExtractNTPTime(mysntp.NTPGetTime(&now, true), &timeExtract);*/

    /*Serial.print(timeExtract.hour); Serial.print(F(":")); Serial.print(timeExtract.min); Serial.print(F(":"));Serial.print(timeExtract.sec); Serial.print(F("."));Serial.println(timeExtract.millis);
    Serial.print(pF(&dayStrs[timeExtract.wday])); Serial.print(F(", ")); Serial.print(pF(&monthStrs[timeExtract.mon])); Serial.print(F(" ")); Serial.print(timeExtract.mday); Serial.print(F(", "));Serial.println(timeExtract.year);
    Serial.println(timeExtract.yday + 1); 
  }

  /* You need to make sure to clean up after yourself or the CC3000 can freak out */
  /* the next time you try to connect ... */
  /*Serial.println(F("\n\nClosing the connection"));
  cc3000.disconnect(); */

    mysntp.UpdateNTPTime();
    mysntp.ExtractNTPTime(mysntp.NTPGetTime(&now, true), &timeExtract);
    Serial.print(pF(&dayStrs[timeExtract.wday])); Serial.print(F(", ")); Serial.print(pF(&monthStrs[timeExtract.mon])); Serial.print(F(" ")); Serial.print(timeExtract.mday); Serial.print(F(", "));Serial.println(timeExtract.year);
}


void loop(void)
{
    mysntp.UpdateNTPTime();
    mysntp.ExtractNTPTime(mysntp.NTPGetTime(&now, true), &timeExtract);
    Serial.print(timeExtract.hour); Serial.print(F(":")); Serial.print(timeExtract.min);

    delay(60000);
    Serial.println();
}
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8
  • Try to figure out if it is either corrupted data, or a math overflow. 3 hours and 14 minutes isn't quite as interesting a number as four hours and 15 minutes would be, but could still be intriguing. Are you certain the intervals are truly random? It would be great if you could somehow monitor the data directly from the wifi shield (or else at at the access point) and even better if you could set up a fake server to repeatedly cycle through the same times and see if it is repeatable. But the real solution may be careful inspection of the whole chain of operations.
    – Chris Stratton
    Commented Nov 10, 2015 at 3:50
  • Here's what I suggest you do: Make a copy of your code, and remove, a little at a time, any code not directly related to your sntp issue. There are two possible outcomes: either the problem will vanish, in which case, find the minimum change to make the problem vanish. If the problem does not vanish, post the remaining code here - I would expect you would have maybe 10-20 lines left (if you get that far).
    – AMADANON Inc.
    Commented Nov 11, 2015 at 2:38
  • PS - you probably shouldn't be polling time servers too often - unless your device powers down, you should be keeping a local clock. NTP is for stopping your clock from drifting, not to save you from having to keep a local clock. I would not expect an Arduino to need to poll NTP more than once a day. By keeping a local clock, you can also check if the clock is off - it shouldn't drift 3 hours, between polls.
    – AMADANON Inc.
    Commented Nov 11, 2015 at 2:45
  • @AMADANON-inc I I think the code is pretty minimal already but I will try removing what I can and see what happens. I agree that the end product has to be using NTP as intended. This was just a weird phenomenon I observed while exploring the use of a wifi shield. It made me concerned that I must be missing something that would be important when eventually using NTP to correct time drift.
    – techkilljoy
    Commented Nov 11, 2015 at 17:05
  • @ChrisStratton that sounds a little above my skill set. It might be good to try but I am going to try and eliminate other possibilities first. Thanks for the insight though.
    – techkilljoy
    Commented Nov 11, 2015 at 17:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The updated NTP test sketch assumes that the communication with the NTP server will not fail but as the NTP protocol is based on UDP the reply package can be lost. A possible correction to the updated sketch is to check the return value from UpdateNTPTime().

void loop(void)
{
    if (mysntp.UpdateNTPTime()) {
        mysntp.ExtractNTPTime(mysntp.NTPGetTime(&now, true), &timeExtract);
        Serial.print(timeExtract.hour); 
        Serial.print(F(":")); 
        Serial.println(timeExtract.min);
        delay(60000);
        Serial.println();
    }
}

Cheers!

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